Following its incredible “Year of Recruitment,” the RV Technical Institute (RVTI) has continued striving to increase the number of trained RV service technicians throughout 2023.
The program sustained its recruitment efforts while also emphasizing partnerships with RV dealerships across the country and launching new courses for the gold-standard curriculum.
Throughout 2023, more than 1,000 technicians, who were new to the RV industry, enrolled in the institute’s programs and over 800 dealerships have at least one certified RV technician on staff. This year also marks new highs with 15,000 individuals enrolled in some type of training and 5,000 newly certified technicians – the largest number of certified techs in the RV industry’s history.
“It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the increasing awareness of and interest in the RV Technical Institute and its mission,” says Curt Hemmeler, RVTI executive director. “Our team has done an incredible job of releasing new initiatives while maintaining our ongoing efforts and our program has flourished in both of these aspects. Ultimately, all our efforts are intended to increase the number of certified RV technicians, with the idea that faster RV repair times mean that consumers can spend more time embracing the outdoors. We’re pleased to see that the industry and consumers are benefitting from our efforts and I’m excited to see what else we’ll have achieved by this time next year.”
The much-anticipated Level 3 program and training opportunities were released this year with qualifying supplier trainings now easy to find on the RVTI website. To supercharge techs ability to achieve a Level 3 specialty certification, the institute held its inaugural three-day Level 3 training session at the end of December, during which 24 technicians became certified in the Appliance specialty. Similar multi-day training sessions that focus on other specialty areas are being launched next year.
Additional training programs were also introduced with the release of the RV-C course. The Level 3 class provides interested technicians with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and utilize RV-CAN (RV-C), a powerful diagnostic tool used in the RV industry.
Along with growing its audience and its curriculum, the institute’s team also continued spreading the word about RV technician career opportunities to younger generations that will fill the pipeline for future RV techs. This year alone, their representatives traveled to over 15 events across the country to share information on the RV technician career path with high school counselors, who will then share it with their students.
And the institute didn’t just attend events – it hosted them as well. In partnership with the RV Women’s Alliance (RVWA), the institute’s team conducted six all-female technician classes nationwide. Five were originally planned but, due to the high demand and overwhelmingly positive reception, an extra course was added to the year’s schedule.